Version 1.1 adds Flickr, Youtube and Tumblr support to Lifestream for a total of 6 social network integrations so far (Facebook, Twitter and RSS Feeds were included in the initial release of Lifestream two weeks ago)

Registered customers of Lifestream can now download version 1.1 for free in our downloads shop here.

Don't forget..LinkedIn and Last.fm plugins will be released in early October. Customers of all previous versions of Lifestream will be able to download these new plugins (plus any future plugins) for free for 6 months after their purchase.

It's a powerful new component & module that dynamically updates your website with all your social network activities and RSS feeds. You can set it to display as separate streams or as one integrated social stream that includes all of your social network updates. You can display your 'life streams' in side-by-side windows, tab view or in one window.

Buy a 1 month subscription for only $42, or, get it for $35 when you also buy a Joomlashack professional template at the same time.

Joomlashack University is your #1 online source for Joomla training and it's simply the fastest, easiest way to learn how to build successful Joomla websites. Period. All the tips, tricks & techniques of Joomla website development--from beginner to advanced concepts--are taught at Joomlashack University by top Joomla experts.

And now, for a limited time, you can save almost 40% and get instant access to a growing library of Joomlashack University lessons, like "An in-depth tour of Joomla 1.6", "Customizing Joomla templates", "learning K2", "mastering Jomsocial" and much more. New lessons are added every few weeks!

Joining Joomlashack University has never been easier. But please hurry! This special introductory offer of 1-month for $42 ($35 with the purchase of a pro template) won't last forever, so check out all the details and learn more here.

Joomla Day's are a great way of meeting peers and learning about this award winning CMS. This will be the second year of Joomla Day New England, last year's event was highly successful with the limited places filled up in just a couple of weeks!

The Flash Image Rotator is one of the most popular tools around. It enables you to set a number of images to rotate, at a speed you specify, through a module position on your site. It is a fantastic way to display multiple images without having to use up a lot of space on your page.

The Image Rotator is an extension that gets published in module positions. Once you have installed it, all you need to do is upload the images you want displayed, customise your Rotator, and publish it in a module position. This guide will teach you how to customise and publish your Rotator, after you have uploaded the images you wish to display into a folder in your Media Manager.

Setting up the Image Rotator

1. Login to the backend of your Joomla site.

2. Go to the Module Manager under the 'Extensions' tab, as shown below.

3. You will have the Image Rotator available if you have already installed the Rotator. Find the Image Rotator, select it, and click 'Edit' in the top right corner, as in the screenshot below.

4. You will now see the familiar editing screen for modules. The editing screen for the Image Rotator is slightly different though, and it is extremely important to get all of the settings right. Important fields to note are: enabling the module, the module position, the menu assignment, and most things in the module parameters. The Image Rotator screen is pictured below, with the important fields highlighted by arrows.

5. Set your Rotator module to be enabled, and place select the module position where you would like it to be displayed. We also recommend setting your title to be hidden.

6. Select the menu items under which you would like your Rotator to be displayed.

7. Now switch your focus to the Module Parameters box. First you will see a field for the image directory. This field determines the directory within your Media Manager from which the images will be displayed. The Image Rotator will cycle through all of the photos in the selected directory, so make sure you set this directory to be the one in which you will store your Image Rotator images.

8. Next you will see a field for height and a field for width. These fields determine the dimensions of the Image Rotator, and so they determine what dimensions the images you display should be. Putting a 900x400 pixel image into a rotator set to display at 700x200 pixels will break the rotator display. Make sure you resize your images to match the dimensions you specify in this field.

Another thing to be careful of is breaking the module position into which you place your rotator. If you set the rotator to display at 1000x800 pixels, you will break most modules because the dimensions will be greater than the dimensions of the module positions themselves. The rotator dimensions are the trickiest thing to get right, and it will likely take some trial and error to set these fields up properly.

9. The Image Display Time field determines for how long an image displays before rotating to the next image in the directory, and the Transition Effect determines the style used when it rotates. Set these fields to your preference.

10. Finally, you will see options for how your rotator triggers, whether it repeats its cycle, and whether shows navigation. We recommend leaving these to their default settings. When you are finished with the Module Parameters, click 'Save'

11. Your Image Rotator will now be up and running, but until you upload images to the directory from which it is pulling them, it will not display anything. The final step is to upload all of the images that you want your rotator to cycle through. Put them all into the directory you selected in the Module Parameters, and your Image Rotator will now be rotating through all of these images!

Scribe is an SEO service that analyzes your content and tells you how you can make it better for search engines and get ranked higher.

When you install the free Scribe for Joomla extension, you can analyze your articles to improve their SEO copywriting - with the click of a button.

The analysis shows you what search engines think your article is about, and then suggests and guides you to make it better. Its like having an SEO copywriting expert standing by your shoulder, helps you optimize your content faster and easier.

Its not a tool to tweak SEF url's, its a powerful editorial assistant to help you write better copy for search engines!

One of the greatest things about Joomla is it's extendability. If you need a forum, a shop solution, a module to display weather, etc., you can bet there's probably a solution available. With over 4,600 extensions listed in the Joomla Extensions Directory at the time of this writing, Joomla users are presented with a myriad of options to extend the base functionality of their Joomla powered site.

While having such choice is an awesome thing for the Joomla end user or site developer, it can at times present some 'formatting' issues. Often times the end user might find themselves out of luck, going back and forth between a template provider and extension developer for support, with each pointing the finger at the other as the cause of a formatting issue.

Perhaps it's time to start slicing up the status quo and approach extension 'design' from a new direction.

Since 2005, Joomlashack has been a leading supplier of free and commercial Joomla templates, Joomla extensions, and Joomla Training. Joomlashack.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Joomla! Project or Open Source Matters. The Joomla! name and logo is used under a limited license granted by Open Source Matters the trademark holder in the United States and other countries.